For a second year, it’s lights out for Columbia

The dome of Jesse Hall on the University of Missouri campus will darken tomorrow night along with many other landmarks around the world to mark the second worldwide Earth Hour.

When: 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Anywhere, but there will be public “lights out” gatherings near the Columns on the MU campus and at Missouri United Methodist Church, 204 S. Ninth St.

Online: www.earthhour.org

Columbia is one of more than 2,800 municipalities in 84 countries participating in the event from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. that calls for participants to dim non-essential lighting and limit electricity use for the hour.

Phil Shocklee, associate director of campus facilities for MU, said he believes it will be the first time the dome will be darkened since it was first lit up on Oct. 1, 1987, in preparation for the university’s 150th anniversary.

“Jesse’s dome being such a prominent landmark, I think it will send a strong message of the university’s participation,” Shocklee said.

MU also will shut off the lights for Earth Hour at other campus locations, including the Columns on Francis Quadrangle and the Memorial Union tower. Security or safety lighting will remain on, Shocklee said.

The lights also are going down at world landmarks from the Eiffel Tower to the Sears Tower. McDonald’s will even soften the glow from 500 Golden Arches across the Midwest as part of the time zone-by-time zone plan to dim lights to highlight global climate change.

Columbia was one of about 400 cities that participated in the first worldwide Earth Hour last year, after Sydney, Australia, held a solo event in 2007.

The public is invited to gather at two locations in Columbia during Earth Hour: for a “lights out watch” on the MU campus at the south end of Eighth Street near the Columns or a candlelit service at Missouri United Methodist Church, 204 S. Ninth St.

Monta Welch, founder of the Columbia Climate Change Organization and local Earth Hour organizer, said residents could participate however they want. “We do want to encourage everyone wherever they are to have fun with it,” she said.

Last year’s Earth Hour activities reduced the city’s energy use by about 1.72 megawatts, enough to power 70 homes for a day, Columbia Water and Light Department spokeswoman Connie Kacprowicz said. The energy use was about 1.2 percent less than normal, well below the 11 percent reduction for which organizers had hoped.

Welch said interest appears to have grown in Earth Hour this year, and she hopes any reduction in electricity is a symbol of year-round change.

“That’s kind of a nice measure of participation on the one hand, but on the other hand, it’s about education,” Welch said of the electrical-use figures. “When people say ‘Earth Hour — what’s that?’ that’s the first level of education, and when they say, ‘Why should I participate?’ that’s the next level.”